Phillip "Molly" Malone is one of the most prolific Web pundits on Aussie Rules footy with his blog Mollyzine and podcast Molly's Monday Machination. He's an engineer and a Hawk fan, and you'll see his name everywhere.
#38: Round 11 2008, live on Talkshoe
After technical difficulties on Wednesday we had to delay this show until Thursday night, and despite going head-to-head with The Footy Show we still got a decent-sized live audience.
Before anything else we start with the two burning questions on every fantasy coach’s lips this week: do I need to get Gary Ablett jnr and/or Lance Franklin into my team at the earliest possible instant by whatever means necessary; and if I’m in the market for a rookie back this week, is Gavin Urquhart or Dennis Armfield my Bubble Boy?
Then it’s onto the regular round review. Jimmy Bartel, Jake King, Joel Bowden, Scott Thompson, Andrew McLeod, Brad Symes, Bachar Houli, Brent Stanton and David Myers get the treament. In our regular Hawk Talk lovefest, we bemoan the inability of Grant Birchall to break a tag, then try to figure out how the Hawthorn ruck situation will go with Simon Taylor injured, Robert Campbell doubtful, Brent Renouf in for his debut game and Max Baileywaiting in the wings with Luke McEntee… maybe this week Jarryd Roughead will pinch hit? Sam Butler, Barry Hall, Nick Malceski, Daniel Bradshaw, Simon Black, Joel Macdonald, Chris Mayne, Chad Cornes, Lindsay Gilbee, Ryan Hargrave, Callan Ward, Adem Yze and Austin Wonaeamirri are all covered. Finally, we pit three Collingwood forwards - Dale Thomas, Alan Didak and Paul Medhurst - against each other for fantasy value, with both agreeing that Didak is #1 but Molly plumping for Medhurst and m0nty for Thomas as second-best.
In the captains discussion (remembering to keep the DT Breakdown and SC Breakdown pages at hand), Molly’s riding the Scott Thompson bandwagon right til the end, while m0nty recommends Kane Cornes if you don’t have Ablett or Thompson.
Finally, after a bit of discussion from m0nty about his ongoing experiences with Premium DT, the boys talk some more about how the advent of the 17th and 18th teams into the AFL are going to royally screw up fantasy competitions, not just because of the dreaded bye, but compromised drafts meaning that starting prices are going to be all over the shop.